Lost and Found
by greenconverses
Summary: Nico's been misplacing a lot of items lately, and they all seem to be showing up in the same place - Rachel's apartment. Nico/Rachel, futurefic.


**Author's notes: **Written for the second prompt fic battle at pjo_fic_battle on LiveJournal, links in my profile. The prompt was Rachel/Nico, sunglasses. Look at the totally awesome and not at all contrived way I hand wave Greek mythology canon to make my ship work! It is a thing of beauty. ;)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own _Percy Jackson and the Olympians_.

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**Lost and Found**

"Have you seen my sunglasses?"

"No, I haven't," Percy replied glancing up briefly as he fumbled with the last of the buttons on his New York Mets jersey. If he was at all disturbed by the sight of Nico tearing up his living room on a perfectly nice Sunday afternoon, he didn't let it show. Weirder things had happened in Percy's living room than Nico's weekly ritual of looking for lost objects, after all. "You think you'll need 'em?"

"Of course I'll need them," Nico snapped, making a disgruntled noise and dropping the sofa back to the floor with a loud BANG. Percy winced.

"I have downstairs neighbors, you know. I'd like not to get evicted a month before my wedding because I decided to be nice and let you stay with me for a couple of weeks again."

"Hey, last time it was your dad's fault, not mine. And I apologized for the zombie plague, didn't I?" he said, pulling out the coffee table's drawers and rifling through them. "You sure you haven't seen them? I could swear I left them here yesterday…"

"I haven't and no, I didn't touch them, before you ask," the older man said. "I don't know why you're throwing a big fit about a pair of sunglasses. It's not like we can't stop at one of the street vendors and get a cheap pair on the way to the game."

As much as Nico liked Percy, sometimes he just didn't get it. The sunglasses were just any cheap pair he could spare to lose – they'd been made especially for him as a 21st birthday present from his father and you didn't just lose gifts from the gods without serious consequences.

As he had grown older, he'd grown much more sensitive to light and he could no longer go out in the middle of the day without getting a splitting headache almost instantly. It was just another unfortunate side effect of being a creature born of the Underworld and no mortal-made sunglasses could block out enough sun for Nico's light sensitive eyes.

"You know I can't go out without them," Nico said, running his hands through his hair in agitation. "Where could they have gone?"

"I swear, you've been losing things left and right recently. Wasn't it your dress pants that conveniently went missing the last time we made plans? Where did you find them?"

Nico paled at this reminder, remembering where those dress pants and everything else he'd lost had been eventually located and how they had gotten misplaced in the first place.

"Shit," he moaned, getting to his feet. "I know where I left them. I'll have to meet you at the stadium. This might take a while."

Percy sighed in acceptance as he pulled his baseball cap over his head. "Say hello to your mistress for me then."

He flinched, hoping his friend didn't sense the guilt rolling off him in waves.

Percy liked to joke about him being the love slave of some Upper East Side widow, but if he knew Nico's so-called mistress happened to be Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Nico would get his ass kicked up and down Manhattan Island like a demigod tennis ball.

The situation with Rachel was a little unique, with her being the virgin host of the Oracle and all. The first time anything had happened between them had been completely accidental – both of them had been ragingly drunk at Annabeth's birthday party, Rachel had offered him a place to stay, and the two of them had ended up making out in the elevator on the way to her apartment. Nico couldn't remember exactly what had happened after that, but he did remember waking up naked in her bed the next morning and thinking he was about to get flash fried by Apollo for defiling his Oracle.

After Rachel had reassured him that Apollo wasn't going to bust down the doors and kill him, she had explained that there were plenty of ways a host of the Oracle could bend the whole chastity rule without completely breaking it, in both a literal and figurative sense. And since Rachel didn't much like rules, she was willing to try quite a few of those ways out with him.

Needless to say, Nico had been rather intrigued by this idea. He'd had the hots for Rachel for a long time, but he had kept his distance because of the whole Oracle thing and there didn't seem to be any downside to their arrangement. One drunken incident between the two of them had turned into a litany of indecent incidents and encounters over the last few months and it showed no signs of cooling down any time soon.

It wasn't like they were dating – they couldn't take this side of their relationship outside of her apartment. Apollo might've been looking the other way for now, but the instant they started parading their rule breaking in public, Nico was sure the immortal would put a quick end to it. Their friends thought they couldn't stand each other because of the way they'd snipe at each other when they all hung out, but he wasn't sure how much longer that façade would hold up if he kept leaving stuff at Rachel's apartment.

He was honestly surprised Percy hadn't put two-and-two together yet; then again, sometimes his friend just didn't get it.

He waved over his shoulder at Percy and used the most shadowy part of his apartment to transport himself away quickly. He reappeared in Rachel's bedroom, hoping that she wouldn't be around and he could get out in time to meet Percy at the stadium. Not that he didn't want to see Rachel, but he probably wouldn't show up to the game at all if he did.

Nico checked the tops of the dressers and her end tables first, not seeing his sunglasses anywhere, and then he dropped to his knees to look on the floor and the under the beds. The sunglasses weren't there either and Nico let out a string of curses under his breath as he stood. Rachel's apartment was huge, and they could be anywhere –

"Looking for these?"

He turned in the direction of her voice. The screen door to Rachel's balcony was wide open and she appeared to be lounging in one of the deck chairs. He walked closer and automatically wished he hadn't; Rachel was sunning herself on her balcony, wearing a purple bikini that showed off far too much of her gorgeous freckled skin. Her long red hair was down and curled around her shoulders in the way the way she knew drove him crazy, and – and she was wearing his sunglasses.

Damn it, she had planned this, just like she had with the dress pants. She was too good at trapping him like this.

"Dare, I swear you're more of a kleptomaniac than a pyschic," he said, leaning against the doorframe and feeling his self-control crumbling as he took in the sight of her. He had to fight the urge to lick his lips in anticipation. "You know, you could just _call_ me instead of stealing my stuff."

"But that's no fun," she said matter-of-factly, pushing his sunglasses up to rest on top of her head. Her green eyes were sparkling with mischief. "I like the jersey, by the way. Very cute."

"I'm supposed to be on my way to the game right now, but I need those so the sun doesn't blind me," he replied, gesturing at the sunglasses. "So can I have them back?"

Rachel tapped her finger against her chin, pretending to think about it. Then she swung her legs off her chair and got to her feet, sauntering over to him. Nico tried very hard to think of anything but the swish of her hips and her full lips, but any other thoughts flew out of the window as she slid a hand up his chest and began fiddling with the top button of his Mets jersey.

"You'll have to try very hard to convince me. I've grown rather attached to them lately," she said, undoing the button with a wicked grin. "So what are you going to do to get them back?"

He was doomed. No man could resist Rachel Dare in full-on seduction mode.

"Well," Nico said, settling his hands on her hips and walking the both of them back into her bedroom. "I have a couple of very interesting ideas, but I need to meet Percy at the stadium – "

"Screw Percy," Rachel said, pressing her lips against the corner of his jaw, just under his ear. He shivered with delight.

"I'd rather not if it's all right with – "

Nico's otherwise witty reply was cut short as Rachel's lips slammed against his, and she made a fantastic noise as pressed her against the wall and his hands slid into her hair. His sunglasses came loose and clattered to the floor by their feet, where they remained unnoticed for quite a bit longer by the room's occupants.

**-o-**

Nico eventually made it to the Mets game, appearing beside Percy in the middle of the first inning. No one else seemed to notice him, but the older man looked grumpy and shot him an unamused look.

"Sorry," he said breathlessly, adjusting his cap and trying his best not to look like he'd spent the last hour having rule-breaking sex. "I didn't think it would take that long. Who's winning?"

"I see you found your sunglasses," Percy said sarcastically. "But you somehow managed to lose your jersey in the process. Imagine that."

Nico glanced down at himself. In his hurry to meet back up with Percy, he'd only put on his white T-shirt and had forgotten to grab the crumpled up jersey at the base of Rachel's bed.

"Shit," he moaned, rising out of his seat. "I'll be right back."

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Thanks for reading. Reviews are appreciated.


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